Birmingham Police Provide Drug-Testing Kits

The Birmingham Police Department (BPD) is providing drug testing kits to parents free of charge, according to an article on the Earnest W. Seaholm Highlander, the student publication of Seaholm High School. The BPD is offering the program in an effort to be of assistance to parents who suspect that their sons or daughters may be involved in drug use.

Detective Ron Halcrow gave the following comment regarding the BPD program: “It’s mostly to try to establish some honesty on [the kid’s] part, and so the parents can be proactive.”

The kits provided by the BPD are urine-based drug testing kits that test for eight different substances: barbiturates, amphetamines, methamphetamines, cocaine, oxycontin, THC, marijuana, and alcohol. All test kits are home-based and will provide parents with immediate results; there will be no need to send in samples to companies, which means that both the parents and the child will have privacy.

The BPD, however, will have no hand in the consequences that the child will have to suffer should a test come out as positive. Crisis counselor Sherree Williams shared that consequences will be entirely up to parents, as the school itself does not make its students undergo drug testing, but mentioned that she is open to talking to any student who may test positive.

Halcrow said that the BPD hoped that parents whose children test positive will try to help their children get back on track through treatment, counseling or rehab – instead of merely disciplining them. The BPD is also encouraging parents to make use of the services that they have to offer.